For a guru, however, I would look for someone greater than one who engages in magical thinking (purifying one's karma as a means of halting HIV), especially when the health of others is being risked. I don't know if this is a rumor, but it is well publicized in the New York Times and I don't see it being disputed except by the faithful.

I am a Buddhist practicioner from England who never heard about Trungpa Rinpoche untill I was 22, about 11 years ago. I have always been drawn by the story of VCTR, his teachings, and of course his Mandala.

I am always hungry for insight into this turbulent piece of Western Buddhist history, and I am grateful to read what you have written.

Upon reading all the various memoirs of students and others from the then Vajradhatu mandala, I feel sadness, devotion, aching, longing and a sense of vivid memory. I have no explanation for these feelings.

You offered to meet in person anyone who was interested in your father. I really wish I could take that opportunity. I believe that Trungpa Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha as has been proposed by many, but arising with those strong feelings is a sense of confusion as to what happened and as to the life-styles of both men. There is just a simple hunger for understanding.

I hope my response to your post is not in-sensitive in any way. I hope I don't seem an intruder.

Chogyam Trungpa is always haunting me.

Yours in the Dharma

Karma Chophel Zangpo

I am a Kagyu practicioner who is alone, afloat on the stormy sea of Samara. I have always been attracted to the teachings and life of Chogyam Trungpa, and I can, even after much reading and pondering, accept the belief the Trungpa Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha.
As for the Regent, why would such a powerful and important person even feel the need to seduce a 19 year old like that? What is awakened about that? Where is the bodhisattva activity in that?

Even though I was 10 and living on another continent when Trungpa Rinpoche died, I really wish I could get to the bottom of this…

Yours in the Dharma

Karma Chophel

Buddhist is non-theistic. Our blind hero-worshop and our blind judgment are two knee-jerk, and unnecessary stides to the same sad, joyful, human coin that is this confusing, magical, ultimately sane life.

I love you, Michael, and as your father calligraphed above, Hoooo! Vajra Joy!

Gee I don't think we knew what we were involved in. I took Bodhisattva vows with the Regent at Karme Choling in 1985. Tsultrim Lamkhin (Discipline Highway) not a sexy name for sure.
I was a cute 21 year old guy in a nice suit. I remember my interview very clearly. The regent was my Kaliyanamitra no question. Completely naked in the spiritual sense ( I have since found that this might be a mutual situation).

I sat with the regent in an interview period afterwards. I had just seen him chat with the fellow before like they were best of friends but when I sat there he totally ignored me. It was so painful..

Then he turned and said, " If you want to be my friend, remember your mind is unborn and unfabricated like the sky."
Then he turned away.

He was my root guru — inseperable from Trungpa Rinpoche. Look at appearance and reality. Don't just jump.

All my love,
Tashi Wangchuk, Richard Armstrong

For me, in the midst of all my shock and grief for my friend who died, my friends who suffered at the death of their father and the split within the community that seemed to mirror the split of my own family, I remember the rainbows at his cremation.

We were driving fast along the dirt road to get to SMC, almost ran into the embankment, slowed down to breath. The air was thick and very overcast. As we arrived, walking towards the field, everything swiftly cleared and the color of the sky and air was luminious, golden orange. And there were so many rainbows I was silently astounded! That's how I remember it. And I've chosen to let the sacred, auspicious voice of Nature and the Dralas speak for Him, and my heart.

I fully understand the many views here, but especially, my heart resonates with Michael. Thank you for your humble, eloquent words. And thank you Waylon, I appreciate you.

From Oakland,
Yours in the Great Eastern Sun and the Awakened Ashe,
Madeleina Bolduc

Yours in the Vision of Awakened Heart and Mind,
Michael Rigden Rich

"In response to close questioning by students, he (Osel Tendzin) first swore us to secrecy (family secrets again), and then said that Trungpa had requested him to be tested for HIV in the early 1980s and told him to keep quiet about the positive result. Tendzin had asked Trungpa what he should do if students wanted to have sex with him, and Trungpa’s reply was that as long as he did his Vajrayana purification practices, it did not matter, because they would not get the disease."

While a famous Rabbi said that a wise person learns from everyone, this is pretty good evidence that nobody is infallible to learn from. As Bob Dylan said "Don't follow leaders." As Sir Laurens van der Post, statesman, military leader, author and close friend of Carl Jung, who kept Boulderites spellbound at the Boulder Theater in the '90s said: "The age of the leaders has come and gone. Every person must be their own leader now. You must remove your projection, and contain the spirit of our time in your own life and your own nature because to go the old way and follow your leader is a form of psychological imprisonment." and "There is a very profound reason why there are no great leaders any more. It is because they are no longer needed."
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